Rainy Afternoons
by lilkawa
Summary: Mary and Matthew pass the time playing board games one rainy afternoon


_Downton Abbey_ doesn't belong to me.

For purposes of my story Scrabble existed in 1913, Scrabble doesn't belong to me.

**Rainy Afternoons**

Matthew sat in the Downton Abbey library pretending to be reading the huge volume in front of him. Nearby, his cousins sat playing board games; at least Mary and Sybil were playing Scrabble while Edith sat on the window seat looking out, she had a book open before her but she hadn't turned a page since Matthew had arrived about twenty minute ago.

The rain continued running down the windows and Matthew was thankful he'd arrived before the skies had opened up. His excuse for visiting this time, as always, had been business with Lord Grantham; the real reason was to see Mary. Luckily for Matthew, Lord Grantham was out while Mary was in, in the library where he'd been asked to wait no less.

After seeing how distracted Matthew was, Sybil said to him, "why don't you join us in a game, Cousin Matthew?"

"No thanks," he replied, smiling softly. It was interesting to watch them play; Mary kept trying to cheat but Sybil wouldn't let her.

"Scrabble will certainly be more interesting than that volume you're trying to read," Sybil insisted. "I'm sure you'd rather play with us than read."

"He prefers to read," Mary said, "he'd rather not think, leave him be."

Matthew closed the book and moved to their table. "I think I will join you in a game, after all," he said to Sybil.

The three of them began to play. Sybil was going first, she looked at her letters, L, E, A, R, S, C, T, she smiled at her companions and wrote, SCARLET on the board.

"Well played," Matthew complimented her. He looked at his own letters, T, T, H, A, R, I, O, he wrote CHARIOT using the C from SCARLET.

Mary looked at her letters, R, I, H, S, T, L, E, and wrote THISTLE using the T from CHARIOT.

They weren't counting the points earned but Sybil was certainly doing better than Matthew and Mary.

Sybil wrote TRIBE using the T from SCARLET, and excused herself. She stood up and left the room.

Matthew stared at the board for a long time until Mary said to him, "I guess this game is proving to be too much for you."

"Not at all," he replied, "just making sure I make the best use of the letters I've picked." He looked at his letters, M, J, E, E, A, I, T. He knew exactly what he wanted to write, carefully picking his letters one by one he wrote JETAIME on the board using the E from TRIBE. Mary read the words and looked up at Matthew who was watching her intently.

Mary swallowed, her heart pounding so hard she was surprised they couldn't hear it, and then said, "I thought we were only writing English words."

"We are," Sybil said, as she walked back to join them. Matthew hastily removed the excess letters from the board and wrote JET instead.

Mary wrote QUIRK and Sybil wrote QUEEN using the Q. Matthew wrote MATES. Mary wrote MOON using the M. Sybil wrote RAZOR using the R from SCARLET.

Matthew looked at his letters, Y, B, E, E, E, R, and I and wrote BREEZY, using the Z from RAZOR. Mary looked at her letters, I, I, O, O, A, T and a blank letter. Looking directly at Matthew she began to put her letters on the board, starting from the O in MOON, she put the blank letter then A, followed by I, T, O, and lastly I. She wondered if Matthew would even understand what she was trying to tell him, did he even know the language?

"What letter is that?" Sybil asked Mary, pointing at the blank.

"M," Mary replied, still looking at Matthew.

"What word is that?" Sybil asked. She tried to sound it out but it made absolutely no sense to her. "That's not a word," she said at last.

Mary and Matthew were staring at each other. "I didn't know you knew any Italian," he said, softly. "There's a lot you don't know about me," Mary replied.

Sybil was looking from Mary to Matthew with interest; she knew there was something she was missing. Mary broke eye contact with Matthew, blushing, and removed her letters from the board, "you're right Sybil I'll to write another word," she said.

0000

The door opened, Lord Grantham was back and he would see Matthew in the study. Matthew stood up and excused himself.

"Have a pleasant afternoon, Cousin," Mary said, smiling at him.

"I am," he swallowed, "I mean… I will. Good afternoon to you too."

Sybil was still trying to remember the letters Mary had put on the board, luckily Father owned an Italian dictionary; she wouldn't rest until she discovered what Mary had written.

0000

**Thanks for reading and reviewing. Hope you enjoyed it.**

**The words Mary spelt were IO TI AMO...  
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